Thursday in Hungary

“Compared to last year, the first part of the season has not been ideal but not a disaster, even if we did not get the results we wanted for many different reasons.”

“We have the speed and everything to do better results, the feeling with the car is good but we keep having mistakes or issues here and there and this cost us a lot of points. As a team we want to be fast and more consistently in the front, to really challenge the Mercedes. I’m sure if we can clean up things and get rid of all the issues we can do a good job and get much better results. It’s hard to say how far is Mercedes still ahead, it seems to vary from circuit to circuit and different conditions. We know there’s still a lot of work to be done but I think we’re going in the good direction.”

“It was a very sad thing to lose Jules, and the circumstances of his accident made it even sadder. Motorsport is dangerous sport and things can go easily wrong , we all know but we never expect these things to happen. I send my condolences to his family.” [via ferrarif1.com]

Media Paddock Quotes

“There is no point to be racing, if I didn’t believe I have [the speed] – and I am sure I have.

“We have demonstrated that many times but the results, when you look at the points, it doesn’t show.”

“I know the real story, it’s no real problem for me.”

“Somehow I end up in the same situation every year and it makes no difference if I have a contract or not. I have a contract and it’s an option now [for 2016].

“It’s not a new thing and it seems to happen every year in F1. I have made it very clear to the team what I want to happen and it’s to be here next year. But unfortunately I don’t know anything more than you guys.

“I don’t read a lot of stuff, but obviously I can see a lot of stuff being written, but whatever comes out in the press doesn’t really matter for me.

“Wherever it comes from, it doesn’t come from here.”

“I’m pretty sure I will be one of the first to know rather than reading in the newspaper when something comes up. Like I said, time will tell and until then I will try to do the same as before and whatever the decision is we will go from there.”

Asked when a decision would be made, Raikkonen said: “I don’t know, you have to talk to the team. It’s not my decision and I don’t know any more than I knew at the start of the year.

“For me the decision and the whole thing hasn’t changed for months. If I knew I would easily say, but unfortunately I don’t know. I have said many times what would like to happen, but who knows. Time will tell obviously, so let’s wait and see.”

“Time will tell obviously. I don’t know what will happen and there is no point to start guessing what will happen. I would like to know, but I don’t know, so I will wait until I know and then we will see what happens after that.”

GALLERY

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OTHER STUFF

Sebastian Vettel: “I’m not the project leader, I know my role. In the end, it’s about Ferrari, it’s about the team, so I think that’s the most important thing for Kimi and myself. I want to beat him, he wants to beat me, that’s normal competition. The thing that I appreciate the most about Kimi is that there’s no bulls***! We are both working in the same direction in trying to help the team. I remember the days when I was sitting in front of the TV at home looking at Kimi’s on-board laps in admiration so it’s still the same guy in that car. I think there are no doubts, if you go up and down the paddock, he’s one of the most skilled drivers that we have.”

How impressed were you with Kimi Raikkonen at Lotus?
Simon Longley, UK

Ah, I love Kimi! He’s an interesting character, to be honest. I have a lot of nice memories with him, I also remember some stress sometimes…

F1R: What… is that in terms of dealing with his behaviour?

EB: Er, no more comment on this one! I might tell you another day, in the pub when you’re not recording and if F1 Racing is paying the bill, obviously. I really like Kimi and I was really stunned by his racecraft: it was unbelievable.

Kimi takes to social media for the first time… In a Q&A session with the fans on Ferrari’s Twitter account: